Medium Launch Vehicle

A New Medium Launch Vehicle

Northrop Grumman and FireFly are co-developing a new medium launch vehicle (MLV) that combines the best flight-proven technologies, systems, and mission experience from both companies to fill a void in the underserved medium-lift market. Carrying more than 16,000 kg to low Earth orbit, MLV serves commercial, civil, national security, and international launch markets with competitive pricing to customers’ preferred orbits.

MLV will first launch from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island and is designed to be compatible with additional launch ranges on the east and west coast.

Built on the Success of the Antares and Alpha

MLV is an evolutionary successor to the Northrop Grumman Antares launch vehicle, offering a significant leap in power, performance, and payload capacity. The vehicle retains many flight-proven systems from the Antares program with additional upgrades, including a more powerful vacuum-based liquid second stage and an industry-standard 5 meter-class fairing that’s customizable to support multiple customer requirements. MLV also uses technologies from Firefly’s flight-proven Alpha vehicle, including patented tap-off cycle propulsion technology and carbon composite sandwich structures to reduce mass and costs, and improve strength and reliability.